Calling all DanceEvolution fans! A new costume for Dave has been released into the Xbox Live Marketplace and for just 160 Microsoft points you can now download this new outfit that he wears during Afronova Primeval, Burnin' The Floor and La Receta. 

To go with this annoucement, here are the screens from the forthcoming Castlevania: Lords of Shadow DLC!

Calling all Gleeks! Here's your first look at the forthcoming Karaoke Revolution Glee!

Check out the new trailer for Metal Gear Solid for the new Nintendo 3DS!

Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH has announced further downloadable content for its GTI Club Supermini Festa! title for PSP.

The all-action racing title was released on September 29th, and Konami's free download adds four car customisations to the basic game. The DLC adds the custom patterns for the Morris Mini Cooper S 1275cc, the FIAT Abarth 695 ss, the AUTOBIANCHI A112 Abarth, and a Renault 5 Alpine Turbo.

Users can access this exclusive DLC via the PSP's online capabilities. Select the 'Ranking' option and the data will be automatically downloaded, with the new custom patterns unlocked and stored within the game's Garage area. Konami has also confirmed that more designs are planned, and will be announced in the coming weeks.

All right fellows!
 
There is something really mystical about submitting a game for final approval to a first party or a distribution platform (in our case, the App Store).
 
Something pretty unfair too sometimes, but that makes submission an absolute accomplishment when it actually passes. If it ever does. Because no matter how hard you work and how well thought out your plans are - there might be something completely unforeseen and uncontrollable waiting to happen to you in the final minutes. And that something, that everybody feared would happen on January 1st 2000, in fact happened in our studio on Monday, October the 4th 2010.

After a crazy rush of bug solving, developers sleeping on our meeting room sofa, producer ordering pizzas (that's a producer's job as well), the moment finally comes when you can actually compile your code and build your so called "gold" version. Yes, it is as precious as gold.
 
Compiling assets and resources of our game all together to make it a single file takes a while, and you're under the impression those minutes are days.

Suddenly it happens. And you have to try NOT to jump out of the window. Your lead developer's computer brutally turns off, without the slightest courtesy, not the smallest warning "be careful I am going to make all of you guys freak the freaking hell out". Computer shuts down. Producers shut windows (security measure). Computer was too tired for being worked on for so many hours. There we were, ten minutes before submission.
 
At that point it's 45° Celsius in the studio, everyone has the fever, it's raining cats and dogs outside, we're under the impression that even Mother Nature is crying for our bad luck. Computer won't start again (even with a splendid volley kick in the hard drive, no reaction). Fortunately our admin network guy is a genius. He will solve this belated Y2K bug. He MUST. He did. Tension is still in the air, compiling starts again. Everyone is holding their breath, like we're taking penalties for the UEFA Champions League(TM) title.
 
I run out of the studio and buy some beers. Yes I admit it, we all had a pint in the studio, but there's nothing mineral water can do against such stress. So we drank, a little too early, praying for compiling to end smoothly, and all ready to give it the kiss of life if needed. The beers are finished but compiling isn't. Windows are still closed and I'm thinking whether or not I should buy some chains to close them even better in case of a second Y2K bug (or maybe the promised 2012 end of the world that would come a little early). Suspense...
 
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAH. It worked. We submitted our game. It heads up to the App Store. Check it out, it?s available now. We're so proud of it!
 
Now, us to sleep, you to the App Store. Good night (it's 2am as I write this and I'm wrecked, we all are). Thanks for your support and comments guys!
 
Axel

Hi,

I hope you're having a nice end to the summer, or a not too difficult return to class/work. Life is hard, I know :)

Let me ask you a question: would you rather say to your friends...
A) You know, I played PES 2010 iPhone yesterday, and I finished all competitions in top player mode.

B) You know, I am going to beat the hell out of you at PES 2011 iPhone right after maths lesson.

Teasing or taunting can be as much fun as playing the game sometimes, don't you think?

PES 2010 iPhone allowed you to manage the basics and make sure you are well trained and ready to face the competition that's coming in PES 2011 iPhone. Ladies and gentlemen let me introduce the hotly anticipated, the one and only PES Multiplayer!

This was the feature most requested on the 'feature wish list' section of our PES Facebook Fan Page, and there was no way we were going to ignore this. We are, as I write, working on this, our philosophy is if we are going to make a multiplayer version it has to be perfect, therefore we are working on three versions for you:

1 - Multiplayer Bluetooth seems to be looking pretty good.  

2 - The Wi-Fi Local Version is dependent on the connection quality but it doesn't seem to suffer any performance issues.

3 - Online Multiplayer is a challenge we're still fighting. We're trying our best, but if the game suffers lags and latency, we may have to forget about this. I feel it would be too frustrating for a user to have imperfect response to key inputs, and ruin all the magic moments a football match can contain.

I often try and imagine what a lag could correspond to in real life and the beautiful game. Well, you wouldn't see a player suddenly freezing on the pitch, but maybe the best representation would be to perform a perfect through ball for one of your forwards who started to run in the space in between defenders with perfect timing. And this same forward would suddenly stop running, for no apparent reason (whereas you were already ready to celebrate your goal, run around your room and shout 'who's the daddy now, who's the daddy' to whoever may listen!).

Oh, and guys, do you want a scoop? I happen to be best player of PES 2011 iPhone in the world for now. Yes, multiplayer has crowned me (against developers and artists from the studio). Once the game is out, I will try and keep this crown. Are you ready? :)

That's all for today folks!

Cheers

Axel

Heya all!

After blogging for PES 2010 iPhone live from Paris Studio and finally releasing the master piece :), let's start a new season of blogs for the upcoming and awaited PES 2011 iPhone!

How've you been? Yeah, I know, September, autumn coming, could be better... Would a brand new Pro Evolution Soccer for your iPhone make up for this?

So, what do we have here? A PES Facebook fan page containing hundreds of posts about how to make a better PES for iPhone, a great team in Paris working on this on a daily basis (with night sessions sometimes), and a still untouched motivation to provide the best football game ever on the iPhone & iPod touch platform.

I have to say the producer Q&A we did on Facebook was a very good thing as it helped us a lot when prioritising the features we wanted to integrate into the new PES 2011. So it seems our dear users want more animations (technical moves noticeably) and more realism (including more realism in stadiums and weather effects). All right, let's go for it! What colour do you want for the snow? :)

Seriously, it's been very helpful. We still have our designing power in-house, and we're trained to face pretty much everything, but still it was cool to realise that many users actually have a very constructive opinion about why and how a feature should be implemented. So we're working on this!

For instance, we're modelling a player going for a bicycle kick as I write (and I will head back to this upside down animation in a minute). The thing is, not every player is able to perform such a trick (which means you must inter-link the animations and player ability stats as a start), and of course it's highly dependent on some situations in the game. So for each animation we include, we have to make sure it doesn't screw up the entire AI system (mainly for strikers but hey, some defenders sometimes perform a bicycle kick as a panic clearance). Then there is the "unexpectedness" of the animation, in order to ensure it doesn't happen too often and not always in the same situation. And believe it or not, even we don't know when it's going to happen! Which makes trailer shooting hellish sometimes, I tell you...

That's it for now folks. I have to help 3D animators model this bicycle kick (very funny / dangerous choreographic moments here!). Stay tuned for more news from Paris Studio in the upcoming weeks.

Cheers
Axel